Mutombo, Gtown Get Revenge on Duke 35 Years Later - Go to Final 4

 

Dikembe Mutombo helped the Hoyas to an early lead, then after a bunch of lead changes Alonzo Mourning - the second half if the greatest shot blocking duo - took over for a 79-74 win over Duke's 2015 national champs. Click here for Hawks pictured tweet.

The win avenges these Hoyas for the upset win by Duke to keep them out of the actual 1989 Final 4. The win is fitting after the finger wagging Mutombo who went onto be such an inspirational human off the court, passed away September 30, leading to tears and choked off interviews with many who knew him.

The Hoyas will advance to play a Big East rival semifinal against the 2023 champs from UConn. The 2022 champs from Kansas are in the other semifinal, but they will be underdogs against the Fab 5 from Michigan's 1993 team. As shown in the box score at the bottom of the blog, Mourning had 24 points and 10 rebounds after Mourning had 8 early points. The Hoyas defense forced 18 turnovers to only 11 forced by Duke. The Hoyas also pounded it inside with only two 3-pointers to six for Duke.

Rankings of Final 4

• UConn moved up from 11th to 10th in our all-time rankings with their Elite 8 win, so Georgetown will still be the underdog as their win moved them up from 33rd to 26th all-time.
• Meanwhile Kansas moved up only slightly from 49th to 45th all-time, making them the underdog against Michigan that moved up from 35th to 23rd to pass Georgetown by a couple of spots.

Of the 234 all-time great teams in the Value Add Basketball Game, these Final Four teams and the champs of our two previous all-time great tournaments are the only six undefeated teams after 301 total games between the teams.

This third batch of teams included teams from 2022 - 2024 - after the first 160 teams were created. After initially allowing no more than one team per school in each century in the first batch of 96 teams (Bill Walton's UCLA beat Michael Jordan's UNC for the title), we had some leeway in our next 64 teams (Paul Pierce Kansas won title).

Separate from these 301 games we also played the 2020 tournament cancelled by COVID, and Creighton beat Duke for that title. That year I was at the last NCAA game and watching Creighton in Madison Square Garden until the game was cancelled at halftime after the NBA canceled their season. 

Pos	Georgetown 1989	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season Stats
1-PG	Charles Smith	13	1	4	2	2	7	3	0	1	6'1	18.7 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 5.1 Ast
2-SG	Dwayne Bryant	6	0	3	0	0	4	2	0	1	6'2	7.2 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 3.4 Ast
3-SF	Jaren Jackson	8	0	3	2	2	1	0	0	2	6'4	12.3 Pts, 5.2 Reb, 1.8 Ast
4-PF	Mark Tillmon	5	1	1	0	0	6	0	0	3	6'2	8.3 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 1.1 Ast
5-C	Alonzo Mourning	24	0	9	6	9	10	0	6	3	6'10	13.1 Pts, 7.3 Reb, 0.7 Ast
1-PG	Bobby Winston	6	0	3	0	0	2	0	0	3	6'5	5.0 Pts, 3.1 Reb, 3.0 Ast
2-SG	Ronnie Thompson	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	6'4	1.7 Pts, 0.4 Reb, 0.6 Ast
3-SF	John Turner	7	0	3	1	2	5	1	2	1	6'8	6.6 Pts, 6.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast
5-C	Dikembe Mutombo	8	0	4	0	0	3	0	0	1	7'2	3.9 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 0.2 Ast
	Turnovers 11	79	2	27	11	15	36	6	8	16
Pos	Duke 2015	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht	Season Stats
1-PG	Tyus Jones	15	2	4	1	1	3	3	1	2	6'1	11.8 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 5.6 Ast
2-SG	Quinn Cook	12	1	3	3	4	3	0	0	3	6'2	15.3 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 2.6 Ast
3-SF	Justise Winslow	10	1	2	3	3	9	1	2	3	6'6	12.6 Pts, 6.5 Reb, 2.1 Ast
4-PF	Jahlil Okafor	13	0	6	1	2	8	1	2	2	6'11	17.3 Pts, 8.5 Reb, 1.3 Ast
5-C	Amile Jefferson	8	0	3	2	2	6	1	2	5	6'9	6.1 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 0.8 Ast
1-PG	Matt Jones	9	1	2	2	2	2	0	0	3	6'5	6.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 1.0 Ast
2-SG	Marshall Plumlee	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	7'0	2.2 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 0.3 Ast
3-SF	Semi Ojeleye	5	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'8	3.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.2 Ast
	Turnovers 18	74	6	22	12	14	35	6	7	20

Winslow Leads Duke Past Houston to Face Edey v. Mutombo-Mourning

 This was the Sweet 16 game we most looked forward to, because Houston 2021 was so impressive in their 102-50 win over 2023 Princeton in their opener, that the shot up from our preseason 70th to 35th in our rankings - making them a 4th seed and getting them a bye in this tournament. This team started the current five season streak Houston has going of years in which they've been in the top 6 in the AP poll and held opponents to less than 60 points per game - and this was the Final 4 team during this streak.

Duke 2015 was just the opposite - starting as the 44th ranked team in the preseason but then barely beating Tyler Kolek's Marquette and the 2014 Nebraska team to drop down to a lower seed for the tournament. However, once in the tournament and with the low seeding, they destroyed Miami 2023 look more like the team that just took over late as Justise Winslow bloomed late to run all the way to the 2015 title after Wisconsin upset what many thought was the greatest Kentucky team until that point.

Therefore this was on of those games where the worst seed was the favorite, because we rank this Duke team a +3, meaning three points better than the average all-time great team in the game - but rank Houston as a +0 - meaning exactly average in the game. That's about how it ended up with a 74-70 Duke win to advance.

However, out of the gates Houston did what they do every year - dominating the offensive boards. This is the first time we ever recall a team grabbing the first 9 rebounds of the game as they shot to a 28-21 lead after grabbing 7 offensive rebounds and 2 defensive rebounds to none for Duke. However, Winslow was not yet in the game, so he came in and steadied it with 15 points and 12 rebounds and as a result Duke only lost the rebound battle 39-44.

 

Duke 2015	Game Highlights	NBA?	Ht	Summary
Tyus Jones	16 pts	nba	6'1	11.8 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 5.6 Ast
Quinn Cook	6-7 free throws (90% season)	nba	6'2	15.3 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 2.6 Ast
Justise Winslow	15 pts, 12 reb	nba	6'6	12.6 Pts, 6.5 Reb, 2.1 Ast
Jahlil Okafor	18 pts, 10 reb	nba	6'11	17.3 Pts, 8.5 Reb, 1.3 Ast
Amile Jefferson		nba	6'9	6.1 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Rasheed Sulaimon			6'5	7.5 Pts, 2.0 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Matt Jones			6'5	6.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Grayson Allen	DNP (dominant next season)	nba	6'4	4.4 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Marshall Plumlee		nba	7'0	2.2 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Semi Ojeleye		nba	6'8	3.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Houston 2021	Game Highlights		Ht	Summary
Marcus Sasser		nba	6'1	13.7 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 2.2 Ast
Dejon Jarreau	16 pts, 2 blocked shots	nba	6'5	10.6 Pts, 5.4 Reb, 4.3 Ast
Quentin Grimes	15 pts, 10 reb	nba	6'5	17.8 Pts, 5.7 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Justin Gorham	15 pts, 14 reb		6'7	8.4 Pts, 8.6 Reb, 1.2 Ast
Brison Gresham			6'8	3.0 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Jamal Shead		nba	6'1	3.3 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 1.5 Ast
Tramon Mark			6'5	7.8 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 1.7 Ast
Fabian White			6'8	6.2 Pts, 4.1 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Reggie Chaney			6'8	4.7 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 0.5 Ast
J'Wan Roberts			6'7	1.9 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Team Stats	Duke listed 1st, then Houston 2nd
Points	74-70 Duke win
Rebounds	39-44 Houston edge (started 0-9)
Free Throws	14-21 to 8-12
Steals	6-5 Duke edge
Turnovers	10-9 Duke 1 more but very low both
Blocked Shots	4-7 Houston edge
Fouls Committed	16-21 Five more fouls called on Hou

This round has more higher seeds than any other round we've played in our three tournaments, as only two to four of the Elite 8 will be a top 8 seed. The 2023 UConn was the 1-seed and barely survived by closing out their Sweet 16 game on an unprecedented 17-0 run. Western Kentucky's 1966 team is also in the Elite 8 as the 3-seed. The other two still alive are the 6-seed Fab 5 from Michigan in 1993 who will need to beat Tennessee 2023 to advance and meet Western Kentucky, and in the ultimate battle of big men, Purdue's Zach Edey will face the 1989 Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning and the one and only, late great, Dikembe Mutombo to see who faces Duke 2015 in the Elite 8.